Chicago Flyhouse Blog

The 586,000-square foot arena is currently home to the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder and hosts numerous events throughout the year including concerts and other sporting events like NCAA Basketball.

The Chesapeake Energy Arena has received a reputation as being one of the loudest arenas in the NBA due to their fan base and rise as an NBA powerhouse by reaching the finals vs. the Miami Heat in 2012. The first game of this match-up created an arena where fans created a noise level of 109 decibels or the equivalent of a live rock music concert.

When your fans can get that loud (and probably even louder), you want to make sure the sound quality in your arena is perfect.

Chicago Flyhouse installed nearly 88,000 square feet of acoustic lapendary panels on the ceiling of the arena that is made up of 2,100 tons of steel. The CMA Acoustical Baffles used for the project were 2” thick with a 1.5# density. Flyhouse custom-engineered brackets were fabricated in the shop to connect the baffles to the ceiling trusses and beams.

Routinely acoustical baffling panels are fully assembled, and shipped directly to an installation location, this project required panels to be assembled on-site due to the panels overall size not being standard.

The perimeter of the bowl also required vertical acoustic panels to be installed. The 9,600 square feet of these panels were installed edge-to-edge with the bottom edge of the panels being retained at the wall with perforated angle iron.

The installation of both sets of panels required the use of a 135’ and 150’ boom lift to reach the areas where the panels would hang. There were a few areas in which the lifts were unable to access requiring a custom-built Flyhouse temporary access solution to be used in reaching areas where the lift couldn’t.

With no unexpected delays throughout the project, Flyhouse worked around previously scheduled events to complete the installation by the deadline so fans could continue to enjoy the arena.

Flyhouse is growing and we need some talented individuals to make it better. Our projects take us across the country and around the world. Each day is something new and the job is never the same twice. Each of us come from a different background and we are a unique group of people. Yeah, we know everyone says that but seriously, when was the last time you worked with someone that could swallow swords? Plus, Flyhouse has all the benefits of a big corporation without the big corporation attitude. So what do we have available?

The House Theatre of Chicago and Chicago Flyhouse have worked together for more than a decade with Flyhouse being the performer flying vendor of choice. For an upcoming performance of The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, the cast has been learning to fly in the Flyhouse rehearsal space. We had the opportunity to talk with The House's Artistic Director, Nathan Allen, to learn more about the company's past and standing out in the Chicago theater scene.

Where did the idea of The House come from and what was the process of getting it off the ground like?Nathan: Most of us met at Southern Methodist University and decided we wanted to start our own thing after graduation. A few of us had also studied at The British American Drama Academy in London. For me, the collision of a traditional American actor’s training with a much more audience focused European classical and physical training inspired questions about form and purpose. We started thinking about what we wanted to make, but more importantly who we wanted to serve. When we arrived in Chicago, we were met with this overwhelming support. People were excited by us and as a bunch of hard-working kids from hard-working families, we were able to harness that excitement into a relatively sustainable institution. We have our ups and downs like any group but we’ve survived on a sense that anything is possible in our theatre and community. It’s a lot to convince someone when you’re dealing with such ancient vocabularies but we’ve taken that challenge seriously - so much so that we started to resist the mundane. It became a challenge to continue staging the unstageable, to put our audience at the center of an imagined epic experience. That artistic chip on our shoulder fueled an ambition to grow, and we’re lucky that for some of our audience it’s made us fun to support. Seventeen years in and still doing it seems as impossible as anything, but here we are.

"It became a challenge to continue staging the unstageable..."

The cast for your upcoming show is doing performer flying training at Flyhouse’s rehearsal space throughout February, why is the partnership the two groups have formed important?Nathan: There are only a few theatre companies in Chicago working regularly in such physical spectacle and stagecraft. Having a partner that can engineer fly systems, educate designers, directors, and performers in their use, and advise throughout a safe rehearsal process makes all the difference in our ability to experiment with and eventually stage these effects.

What has changed in theatre since your company was formed?Nathan: That's a great question. In a real way, the theatre hasn't changed in thousands of years, but that's probably dodging the question. Still- I like to think that as we see modern media technologies become more and more isolating (especially those technologies that claim to be "social"), we see a reckoning with those purer and ancient purposes of our art form. Even in the frame of the last 17 years, I think we've seen more artists and producers aiming their work at the theatre's social functions, becoming more inclusive, and building spaces tuned for community building.

Is risk taking an essential part of a theatre company?Nathan: In many ways, it’s a difficult business to begin with. But the way we've found to thrive in it is by trying to stand out- do something different. To try new things and embrace the risk of failing as a part of what makes the work exciting. Learning requires risk. The hardest trick is building a community of support that will take those risks with you.

"To try new things and embrace the risk of failing..."

What sets The House apart from others in the region?Nathan:Our people. Our culture, led by our incredible Company Members, and nurtured by our Staff and Board, is as kind and courageous and encouraging and entrepreneurial as any arts and culture institution could be. Culture is everything, especially in a not-for-profit, and our people curate that culture. I think that it shows in our work.

Nathan Allen (Artistic Director) - The House Theatre of Chicago Nathan founded The House Theatre of Chicago with friends in 2001 and continues to lead the company as Artistic Director. In his role, he is responsible for the development and programming of all projects. Writing and directing credits include Death and Harry Houdini, The Sparrow, Rose and the Rime, The Last Defender and The Hammer Trinity (The Iron Stag King, The Crownless King, and The Excelsior King.) He also wrote and starred in The Valentine Trilogy (San Valentino and The Melancholy Kid, Curse of the Crying Heart, and Valentine Victorious) and directed The Magnificents by Dennis Watkins, with whom he created the weekly magic show, The Magic Parlour.

Nathan's work has been seen on the stages of The House, The Steppenwolf Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, The Arsht Center of Miami, The Stoneham Theatre in Boston, Strawdog Theatre, The Neo-Futurarium, Collaboraction, and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Nathan has received acknowledgements from the Joseph Jefferson Awards, The Orgie Awards, and The American College Theatre Festival. He has been named an Associate Artist at The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and received the Emerging Leader Award from his alma mater, Southern Methodist University.

There comes a point where all systems need an upgrade to make sure they continue to be safe, efficient, and operational. The rigging business is no different with its systems.

Lyons Township High School recently had Flyhouse upgrade their theatrical rigging system from a manual to an automated ETC rigging system. The previous system had become unsafe and dangerous to continue to use in productions.

Over the course of the project, Flyhouse demolished the existing counterbalance and out-of-compliance curtain system before any newer systems could be installed. The new rigging system included single and double purchase counterweight line sets, a motorized counterweight line set and dead hung side tabs for brand new curtains.

While the newer rigging system was an upgrade, the already established structural features required some innovative methods to create workarounds to install the system. For Flyhouse, the challenge of installing around I-beams, an HVAC system, water pipes, and existing conduits was just another day at the office.

Lyons new theatrical rigging system is now up-to-date and productions can move forward safely.